Ascended Fanon: At a panel, Warren Spector mentioned that he limited the references to other Disney films up to The Jungle Book in order to prevent himself from going overboard. Peter David, on the same panel, mentioned that The Jungle Book was, incidentally, the last film Walt Disney had a direct hand in making, so Warren Spector said that was the official reason from now on.

Christmas Rushed: Word of God is that Epic Mickey was rushed to reach store shelves by the 2010 holiday season, which explains a few of the game's rougher edges. Even with the rush, it still missed the "Black Friday" after-Thanksgiving shopping weekend.

Collectors Edition: Those who pre-ordered the game got a special edition of the strategy guide (with an interview with Warren Spector in it), themed Wii skins, and a vinyl Mickey figurine holding a paintbrush.

Dueling Games: Very broadly. The simple fact that it's a rather "unorthodox" Disney game that features Mickey Mouse being cooler than you remember is getting it compared to the Kingdom Hearts series. "Fans" occasionally bring in an "East vs. West" mentality to arguments over which is superior, to complicate matters further.

Executive Meddling: Seemingly averted. Interestingly, Disney's support of the game style is rumored to be related to the business-savvy observation that the company's biggest profits in video games come from ones willing to adopt a semi-dark style, as well as genuinely trying to revamp Mickey as a genuinely useful (and marketable) character.

Executive Veto: Granted, they've vetoed some minor elements along the way, but considering how over-protective Disney's been regarding the Mouse (remember the Runaway Brain fiasco?), this could actually be a good thing by the company.

Marth Debuted in "Smash Bros.": You can bet your left foot that most people who are aware of Oswald's existence owe it to this game (which was intentionally made as a comeback vehicle for both him and his brother, and the games at least acknowledge Oswald's original cartoons). Adding to the issue is that while half of his original cartoons are available on DVD, said set only got a limited release, and wasn't released in other countries.

Showing up in Disney Theme Parks after the game's release was a lot of merch featuring old Mickey (including at least one shirt featuring a shot of him from Gallopin' Gaucho, a short that fell into company Canon Discontinuity for having Mickey light a cigarette -with his foot- among other things.) This game is why.

Of course, the whole "needing to make money from these properties in order to continue holding an extended copyright to them" thing probably helps, too. If Oswald becomes a regular member of the Disney crew, you can thank this game.

Screwed by the Network: Despite Disney's Crazy Awesome status listed in the YMMV tab, the finished game was originally supposed to be a late 2011/December 2011 release, but cut the development time by a full year, therefore the game technically isn't finished, which explains most ofthe problems.

To elaborate further, the change from the Scrapper/Hero system to Guardian system was made because then you'd have to worry less about people just trying to play the meter and instead make their own choices.

Word of God is that the leaked concept art was made of ideas rejected because they were too edgy for Spector.

An Alice in Wonderland level based on Alice's Curious Labyrinth from Disneyland Paris was planned but scrapped to avoid confusion with the Tim Burton film. It can still be seen in Yen Sid's model of the Wasteland.

When Mickey spills the thinner into the Wasteland, one can see the Labyrinth model sinking away into nothingness, further explaining why it never appears in the game.

In specific, this art shows the unused Scrapper mechanic, as well as the "Storm Blot", a mixture of Oswald and The Shadow Blot.

Oswald was also originally going to be the main antagonist of the game before he was made in to an anti-hero by Warren Specor when he was brought on as director, since Spector wanted people to love Oswald again, not hate or fear him.

Several concept art shows that Minnie was originally going to be in the game.

Another storyboard shows Ursula◊ as a villain in the story. According to the Art Book, Ursula would have lived inside The Jug, originally written as a separate location from Mickeyjunk Mountain attached to various machinery filtering out the thinner in the environment.

Potential bosses for Mickeyjunk Mountain included Chernabog and a robotic Yeti exo-suit of Oswald's.

A larger example comes from the decision why the game is a Wii exclusive. It was originally a XBOX 360/PS3 game, but when he was asked about a Wii version, Warren Spector decided he didn't want to it to make it a bogged-down port. So, they decided to make it a Wii exclusive...(It should also be noted that he's also a big Nintendo fan.)

The Phantom Blot would have appeared as a separate character from the Shadow Blot, but it was decided to only have the Shadow Blot because of concerns that players would be confused as to which Blot the characters are talking about.

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